Coffee Aids Colon Cancer Recovery, Study Finds
Colon cancer patients who enjoy a few cups of coffee a day
appear to survive their cancer better and they're less likely to die early than
non-coffee drinkers, researchers reported Monday.
It's the latest in a series of studies showing the benefits
of coffee, which can lower the risk of diabetes, Parkinson's and cancer. This
is the first one to show it may help patients recover better, and should come
as welcome news to colon cancer patients who worry if they can safely enjoy
coffee.
"What we found in this slightly less than 1,000
patients is that those who drank coffee regularly had a better disease-free
survival, meaning they had a lower rate of having their cancer recur or of
dying," said Dr. Charles Fuchs, director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer
Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
The colon cancer patients have been filling out daily
diaries with details of what they eat and how much they exercise. They've all
been diagnosed with Stage III colon cancer, which has spread to nearby lymph
nodes but which hasn't spread to the rest of the body yet.
All the patients had surgery and chemotherapy. Those who
drank four or more cups of coffee a day were 42 percent less likely to have
their cancer come back than non-coffee drinkers. They were 33 percent less
likely to die of their cancer or of anything else during the study, the team
reports in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Two or three cups of coffee a day had a somewhat slighter
benefit.
By the way, other caffeinated drinks such as soda didn't
have the same effect. "People who consumed two or more sugar sweetened
beverages a day have a poorer outcome," Fuchs said. Tea and decaffeinated
coffee did not have the same benefit, although not very many people drank tea
or decaf exclusively so it's hard to say.
And the researchers did not ask how people took their coffee
- black, with sugar, or as a latte. That's a question to ask in follow-up,
Fuchs said.
Fuchs said there were two reasons for the study: Colon
cancer and diabetes seem to have similar risk factors, and the demand among
patients for something they can do to help recover from their cancer.
"We have actually in this cohort found that obese
patients do worse, sedentary patients do worse, patients who exercise did
better and patients who avoided a Western-pattern diet or a high-glycemic-load
diet did better," Fuchs said.
"The risk factors for adult onset type-2 diabetes
seemed to influence the outcome of colon cancer patients," Fuchs added.
"The preponderance of evidence is that people who drink coffee have a
lower risk of diabetes."
Now the question is what is it about coffee that's helping?
Fuchs said it could be antioxidants or other compounds in coffee, it could be
effects on metabolism, on the microbes living in the gut, or something else.
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